BRITISH TAXPAYERS handed millions of pounds in aid to the richest countries in the world, such as the US and Japan, new figures have revealed.

British taxpayers handed millions of pounds in aid to the richest countries in the world (Image: GETTY)

The staggering numbers show that the UK has given to Washington more than £4million to support its cyber security, financial services and projects in “smart cities” like Boston. Other countries that receive UK foreign aide include many that are much richer than Britain, including Japan, whose gross domestic product is almost twice that of the UK. The country received almost £500,000, which has been used to fund projects that “support Tokyo’s development as a global financial centre”.

However, a Foreign Office spokesman called the fund vital to portraying Britain as an outward-looking nation.

He commented last night: “The Prosperity Fund has a non-aid component to help generate opportunities for UK businesses in both mature and emerging markets.

“An example of this includes a showcase event in Brazil that helped UK energy companies secure contracts worth over £50million, and promotional activities in the US that contributed to a £56million export win.”

He added that the FCO did not know whether Britain received funds from other countries under similar reciprocal arrangements.

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This month, it also emerged the Government is sending millions of pounds in Pakistan (Image: GETTY)

This month, it also emerged the Government is sending millions of pounds of UK taxpayers’ money in Pakistan to help fund dozens of prosecutions which have resulted in the death sentence being given out.

The Foreign Office is giving financial aid to support specialist civilian courts in what Whitehall calls a “rule of law” programme.

The courts focus on trying terrorist suspects but many of the 59 death sentence convictions have been considered unsafe.

Since 2016 the UK government has given Pakistan £10.39million for the programme with £9.32million coming out of the overseas aid budget which is funded by taxpayers.

In 2015, the UK spent more than £12billion on foreign aid, twice as much as France.